I don't believe in any god, in any afterlife, in miracles. Yet I'm beginning to wonder about the power of mind over body - of the role the mind plays in illness.
A couple of years ago I had vestibulitis. Basically the lip of the vagina is extremely painful at three nerve points. Hard to sit, hard to have sex couldn't wear any type of jeans without pain. They don't know what causes it, or really how to get rid of it. I saw four specialists in three years - after many pills, the last one recommended surgery. As the surgery has been proven to cause more problems than it helped - I decided not to go with it. I decided to be a true Grant and ignore the problem so it would go away. Anytime it hurt (which was most of the time) I told it that it did not hurt. I'd think at it every night "go away, go away!" It gradually went away by the next spring. Hmm, good of it to resolve itself that way, I decided. It was time, so it went away.
This summer I was having a lot of cramping. We found a large cyst on my ovary. The doctor said it would take a while, but it might resolve itself with time. It was a little suspicious, but we'd do another scan and see if it grew in the ten weeks between scans. During that time I spent a few moments every night just thinking at it "go away." It hurt like crazy all September, and I just thought at it "Go Away!" I am a skeptic by nature, but I didn't think it would hurt anything to try. Just had the second scan and my doctor left the message that the problem had resolved itself. Yet she'd told me two months ago that ten weeks wasn't long enough for it to shrink - the test would just make certain it was no longer growing.
So, is it possible that we can resolve health issues where the body is "misbehaving" in minor ways by using the brain to tell it to do right? I don't think curing cancer or diabetes, a virus, or even allergies (where external factors are disrupting the body) this way is possible. But vestibulitis is a case of the nerves misfiring. The cyst was caused by ovulation not quite pulled off correctly.
I am a big fan of cognitive therapy. It has done wonders in my life - change your way of thinking about the world and yourself and you really can change your outlook and become a happier person. I know that works. We know that the brain controls the body functions like breathing and heartbeat and such unconsciously. We also know we can consciously train it to do things it could not before - we can teach our hand to write, our arm to wield a tennis racket. I've always known how to consciously lower my blood pressure and take pleasure in doing this at the doctor's office to see how low I can get it (my record is 104 over 56). Is it possible to focus the brain enough to get it to heal the bad things it is doing to itself? Or was this all just coincidence (which, as a skeptic, I am almost eager to accept) and didn't require me thinking at it at all? Sort of fun to think about. Hopefully my body will behave itself and I won't have to prove my own hypothesis.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
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2 comments:
I vacillate between thinking that there are no coincidence and that everything is random! It's certainly true, though, that the relationship between mind and body is quite complex.
Here's hoping you have continued good health.
Love,
Shadow/J
Wow, you're the original "heal thyself" woman! Thanks for an inspiring post!! Salud-- to your health!!!
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